Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Today's Special - - Anna Steffl

PJ here. It's my pleasure to welcome two people to the blog today: Dish reviewer J. Perry Stone and fantasy romance author Anna Steffl. Long-time friends, J Perry Stone leaped at the opportunity to rake Anna over the....ah....that is...she agreed...graciously agreed...to gently lead her friend through her first Q&A here at TRD. Yes, that's what happened. I'm sure of it. Almost. So, without further ado - and before I get myself into more trouble with both of them - please welcome Anna Steffl and J. Perry Stone. Take it away, ladies!

J: Welcome, my dear friend. As you well know,
it’s one thing to present a professional face to the reading public, but quite
another to meet your friend--with whom so many unprofessional phone
conversations have occurred--on that same professional playing
field. If I ask you a personal question or two, forgive me.

That out of the way, why don’t you give the Romance Dish audience an overview
of your fantasy SOLACE TRILOGY.

Anna:

Between a woman and the powers of hell

Arvana thought she’d found refuge from the pain of earthly love when she joined the cloistered community of Solace--then...

Stand a relic

In the dark of the superior’s chamber the ancient Blue Eye relic begins to glow, and the creatures of the Reckoning are resurrected. As the one Solacian who can use the Blue Eye, Arvana is commanded into society on a secret task to find a champion to wield the powerful relic.

Two men

Arvana’s choice seems simple: a charismatic prince or a battered captain of proven courage. But when one man demands her love and the other inspires it, her mission unravels.

And a last chance at solace

Will a single forbidden moment endanger the fate of the world and destroy Arvana’s hope of solace with the man who opened her heart?

J: Okay, I’m in. Any kind of love triangle upon which not
only the heroine’s heart, but the world’s fate hinges is a must read for
me. I’ve heard you describe your series as “Game of Thrones for chicks.”
As an avid GoT fan I have to ask, how sexy do YOUR characters get?

Anna: There’s gobs of sex in GoT, but it
isn’t sexy to me. Sexy is a desire so strong it defies gravity, turns your
world upside down, and makes the blood rush to your dizzy head despite how hard
your heart is thumping. In GoT, the blood mostly rushes to, er, other body parts.

I have a love triangle between a
nun-like heroine and the two men she must judge for worthiness to wield a
dangerous relic against a brutal, supernatural foe. The allure of love and
vanity versus the demands of honor and obedience is what the book is about—well,
there are those pressing matters of dragons and creepy evil villains. With a
nun character, you can’t get overly explicit without making her a too deeply
flawed character. But, the struggle with forbidden love makes the physical
scenes all that much more emotional.

J: I totally agree.
There is nothing sexier than a bit of unrequited love. It’s the perfect avenue for some amazingly
taut sexual tension. On another note,
you mention dragons. This is a fantasy,
of course. Can you describe your
specific brand of world building?

Anna: Fantasy world building is damned-if-you-do,
damned-if-you-don’t. Some fans savor every word of description. Others skim what
they consider bloat to get to the next plot point. I’m a skimmer, so I keep my
world building short and to the point.

J: Has fantasy always been your favorite genre?

Anna: Yes. Everything decent I ever wrote
has speculative elements.

J: And now on a little more personal side: how did you
become a writer?

Anna: I made up fantasy languages, maps, and quests
as a kid. Rather doomed, don’t you think?

J: Absolutely doomed.
So now that you are a writer and can speak from experience, what is it
about the writer’s life--a solitary existence to be sure--that appeals to
you?

Anna: It makes being a hermit acceptable and a little
cool.

J: Are you a voracious reader and if so, which kinds of books
keep showing up on your TBR pile?

Anna: I read five to seven books at once.
I’ll have a classic, a few romances, a sci-fi or fantasy, economic theory,
history, spirituality, political theory, and a humor piece

J: You know I’m not going to ask you to elaborate on the
“economic theory” part of your answer, Anna.
So who are your favorite writers?

J: Such a varied list, which, by the way, speaks to what I love
about you—you’re so multi-dimensional. However,
I know a few things about you that aren’t so surprising. If writers’ stereotypes are accurate, which
ones apply to you (you know where I’m going with this ;-) )?

Anna: Would you be referring to the cat thing?

J: Of course! But I’ll move on. So, in conclusion, what is something
odd/eccentric about you that readers may find interesting?

Anna: My failed Vegas accordion career.

J: Readers, I have to add here that she’s not kidding.

Thank you so very much for visiting the Romance Dish,
Anna. Could you leave us with a juicy excerpt to whet our reading
appetites?

Anna: Of course! And if you’d like to read
the trilogy, comment below and you could win it on ebook.

Excerpt:

Arvana swung her leg over the horse and began to
dismount, but the prince grasped her by the waist and lifted her to the ground.
The pressure of his hands so firmly on her body took her breath away and made
her heart rise into her throat. No one had ever touched her like that except
her father when she was a small thing learning to ride. But Chane’s hands
weren’t her father’s hands. Why Chane’s hands were different her mind wouldn’t
say, but her face burned. She wanted to step back, hide her face, but she
couldn’t move. He was unconscionably close. Men helped women dismount. He had
helped Jesquin. It wasn’t anything unusual, but Jesquin didn’t blush. Arvana darted her gaze to her too-small shoes
and forced herself to notice her toes throbbed.

Yet, one of his hands rested at her waist. It was so
large and warm.

“Since you have named no prize, I’m forced to give
you one of my own devise.” He took her down-turned chin into his hand and
lifted it.

Why was he teasing her? Touching her face and making
her pulse race? She raised her gaze to his to implore him to stop, but his eyes
held no glint of the humor in his voice. His touch made her forget to breathe,
and the earnest longing in his eyes arrested her thoughts.

As his face came nearer, he closed his eyes and by
an uncontrollable impulse, she closed hers, too.

He gently touched his lips to hers.

“There,” he whispered, his lips brushing hers as he
spoke, “you need that more than gold. Has anyone ever kissed you?”

Kiss.
At the word, Arvana returned to her senses and jerked away. “Prince!”

“Don’t act surprised. I only lost because I wanted
to watch you ride. It was quite a view.”

“That is…not true,” she stammered, bewildered
between the exhilaration of the ride and the surprise of the kiss. “I won
fair.”

“Yes, you won. You won me from the start. It was
never fair.” He grasped her to him.

Anna Steffl lives in Athens, Georgia, home of the New World
gods of football and alternative music. She has held a string of wildly
unrelated jobs, from frying chicken to one that required applying for a
Department of Defense security clearance.
She is a past president of Georgia Romance Writers and a Golden Heart
Award finalist.

Thanks for visiting Ruth. I like to think these books are a good intro to fantasy because they aren't as long or as complicated--though you do get to meet all three movers and shakers of the story in the first few chapters. After that, it is mostly hero/heroine.

Anna, congrats on your new release! I enjoyed Seeking Solace and am glad to see the next book out!

Favorite fantasy story is easy--The Lord of the Rings. Picking a 2nd-place story, though, would be tough, as there are so many I love. As for love triangles, I'll go with Lisa Shearin's Raine Benares series. Raine had to choose between Tam, the goblin prince, and Mychael, the commander of the city's guardians, or paladins, each of whom had magical gifts.

Fabulous covers, as to Fantasy, I always get my genres confused. Is supernatural considered fantasy, if so I love Deborah Harkness's All Souls Trilogy, I read Cat Devon's vampire novels. I love the recent Nora Robert's The Dark Witch.

Hi Sharlene...yeah, it does get confusing over what is actually considered fantasy. Lots of people think of paranormal as a sub-genre of fantasy where the supernatural events all occur in this world instead of in imagined or future ones. I'd agree with that :-) Thanks for the cover love!

Okay, this looks like a must read for me....I am in! I am an avid Anne Mccaffrey fan. Loved the DragonSong books. And a few others...Thea Harrison....excited I found these books because they look really good.

Thanks for stopping by to comment, Hope. I'm honored to have you read my stories :-) I tremendously admire authors like Anne Mccaffrey and Thea Harrison. They step into a male dominated genre and really take it over! I'm excited that there are more women breaking into science fiction and add a romance elements, too.

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